Is it possible to blow an amp by pushing too much bass?

[Bwcad1]

o yea deffinatly weird but makes sense when you really think about it.

[geolemon]

there is more to it than just that geo almost every alt company reccomends 4ga on there alts because if you use 1/0 the resistance is to low and the post on the alternator actually heats up and can cause internal issues on the alt.

I'd call BS on that one to whoever told you that. ]The less resistance you have, the less heat you have.[/b]
You can't escape that, you can't deny that.

Calculate it any way you like - the less resistance you have, the less power you have (voltage times current equals power), and power is heat.
The less resistance you have, the less current you have. Too much current melts things. That's how fuses work.

Or, look at it from another angle...
Measure the resistance in a 4 foot length of 4 awg cable.
Measure the resistance in a 4 foot length of 1/0 awg cable.
The difference will be so negligable as to be dismissable.
...you wouldn't claim that that thin line between those two values represents the difference between "long life reliability" and "factory identified reliability issue!", would you?

I would believe that an aftermarket alternator company might suggest using 4 awg wire to upgrade your factory wires with...
...because 4 awg is significantly larger than 8 awg, has LESS resistance, which means less strain on the alternator, less power loss in that line, less voltage drop (created by resistance), and a more efficient system overall.

But I would NEVER believe that an aftermarket alternator company would ever suggest that using even larger gauge cable would be electrically harmful. More difficult, more awkward, not practical, not necessary - absolutely. But harmful? Absolutely not. If 1/0 gauge were harmful, so would 4 gauge.

I challenge you to find one official reference from any alternator manufacturer who suggests that too LARGE of a gauge wire would cause problems.

Too small, I'm sure you wouldn't find nearly as much difficulty with - but not too large. This is a voltage source, which is dependent on circuits to present a resistance (DC as well - which couldn't be more straightforward) - not a circuit itself which presents a resistance for a voltage source. There's a clear line, and any voltage source which presents or includes a resistance is inherently inefficient (alternators, generators, or batteries), and any circuit that is connected to such an inefficient device will suffer - in exactly the way I described in this article here:
http://www.betteraudio.com/geolemon/newmain/battcapalt
...read about the downside of deep-cycle batteries, or capacitors with unusually high ESR [like those square carbon-type, non-electrolytic kind], and you'll know why this makes no sense.

Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox now - it simply makes no sense, and that's any way that you could evaluate it - intuitively, logically, or scientifically with reference to any electrical law that one would reference.
I'd certainly LOOOVE to see any documentation from an alternator manufacturer who would care to contradict really ANY of these.

[Ryan from Ohio]

Im with Geo on this one.

I see whats being said about the smaller wire and can agree it does sound correct, but electicaly speaking I know its not.

If an alernator Mfg winds an alt to 300 Amps, by all means the Alt should be fully capable of 360 amps before failure sets in. That includes the post off the alternator.

Also the wire does not PULL amperage. Just because its 1/0 doesnt meant it will PULL more power than 4 Ga. It will allow power to flow easier as noted.

Furthermore, if people want to get more technical, The power isnt being pulled from the alternator, its flowing TO the alternator...

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

See community college taught me somethin'